A state funeral will be held for asylum seekers who drowned off the Italian coast last week. What can Australians learn from the way Europe responds to such boat tragedies, asks Claudia Tazreiter.
Although the asylum-seeker problem is highly politicised, it cannot be handled in a political way. Patient work with neighbouring states is the only way to stem the tide, argues Jenny Stewart.
Both major parties are in a race to the bottom about how best to shut down Australia as a place of refuge for people who take to the sea, writes Jane McAdam.
If the UN thinks indefinite detention of asylum seekers on the Australian mainland is cruel, inhuman and degrading, we can only imagine what it might say about Nauru and PNG, writes Jane McAdam.
The Coalition's plan for processing asylum seekers will be challenged in the courts and will likely fail, putting a future Coaliton governemnt back at square one on asylum policy, argues George Williams.
The Federal Government can remove the legal risks facing the PNG plan by amending the Migration Act and legislating in breach of the refugee convention. But this may be a step too far for Parliament, writes George Williams.
The Coalition's new asylum policy will degrade administrative decision-making, undermine accountability and leave refugees in a permanent state of psychological and legal limbo, write Jane McAdam and Ben Saul.
Resettling refugees in PNG has the potential to create a class of traumatised individuals who arrive without family or support services to meet their intense needs, writes Belinda Liddell.
The plan to send asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea is sure to be challenged in the courts but it is unlikely to meet the same fate as the Malaysian solution, argues George Williams.
